MMORPG

Speaking of Diablo 3 and DPS, a recently posted update mentions delays to D3's planned PvP. While 1v1 is probably worth a look, it was more the team deathmatches which sounded interesting. Of course, that was until I stopped and remembered I don’t actually know anyone playing D3 anymore, so it was never going to fly for me anyway! Still, I’m interested to see what this ends up looking like, and whether there’s a place for the non hardcore (in terms of player skill/time sink, not perma-death sense) player to get anything out of this. Tags: MMORPG

It might sound like a stupid fix, but it seems to work: Open launcher Click the small gear icon on the lower left Change Language from English to any other language It should start updating, give it a few minutes When it starts updating, change the Language back to English. Original link here. Tags: SWTOR, MMORPG

For all you people anxiously awaiting the release of the next Star Wars MMO: SWTOR invites Australia and New Zealand into testing Today, hot on the heels of the official European testing announcement, BioWare Community CoordinatorAllison Berryman announced that the latest round of testing invites just left the Austin offices. This smaller group is designed to test out the west coast server for a limited time, and much to the delight of players, the group includes players from Australia and New Zealand. Tags: MMORPG, Gaming

Diablo III looks fun. No commentary required - check the video and have a read of the article and see what you think. Diablo III Hands-On Preview - Real Money in a Virtual World (Gamespot) Tags: MMORPG, Gaming

..and yet another Star Wars game related post: Smedley on the sunsetting of Star Wars Galaxies Sony Online Entertainment has announced that Star Wars Galaxies will be shutting down on December 15th of this year, marking what is in my mind the most significant sunset of a major MMO to date I spent a lot (A LOT) of time in SWG (pre CU and pre NGE), so have mixed reactions about this announcement. Like many others I felt that the game died after NGE, but still there’s something about this final announcement that feels...

Possibly the best video title, ever. However it's not about what you might think - uhm, hang on, what did you think? The video shows fun with a horse in the recently released MMO, Age of Conan Tags: Gaming , MMORPG

Last week, the Hello Kitty MMO (with the incredibly creative name of Hello Kitty Online) went into closed beta. For me, the big news here is that there's combat! I was expecting it to be something similar to Second Life with a Hello Kitty skin applied to it, but there's going to be fighting as well as weapons crafting! Crafting system: Hello Kitty Online has an extensive crafting system with output such as tools & weapons, farming implements & furniture, a wide variety of cooked dishes, and clothing for decorative and stat-modifying items. Raw materials include wood, minerals...

Is Hellgate an MMO or not asks exactly that question. I definitely agree with the sentiment that a new term is required for games that rely heavily on instancing, but I think we could do better than "Instanced Multiplayer Game".
In my opinion, they're simply not the same as other non instanced games. I think that instancing has it's place, and that games like WoW and to some extent SWG got it right with their use of instancing (I liked it more in SWG per se, because there were instanced as well as non instanced dungeons).
There's just something about a...

If you're at all interested in Tabula Rasa, but can't be bothered playing the beta, then you should check out some of these videos. They give a pretty good window into what that game is going to contain when it hits next month. The first video also lets you laugh at Richard Garriott's spectacularly bad double ratstail haircut, so there's some extra value thrown in for free!
Tags: MMORPG, Gaming

Gamespy: Saga of Heroes / Out of the Box has a bit of a quick write up on Vanguard. The general verdict seems to be to wait a while before checking it out. In typical SOE fashion the game has been rushed out the door early, and has significant performance issues.
The problem with such a powerful graphics engine rendering a massive game world in real time is the hit you’ll take on performance. And no matter how great your system, you will have to turn off some of these wonderful graphics options in order to get the game running at...

Vanguard Saga of Heroes, which goes live some time later this month has taken an interesting choice regarding their Community Forums. Quite simply, they've closed them, and stated that the community should all pick fan-operated forum sites to use instead.
It's an interesting decision, I'll certainly be keeping an eye on how it plays out for them. Knowing how previous SOE forum admins have operated, you're much better off staying away from any of their 'official' forums anyway.
The Freedom to Choose: Vanguard Fan Sites
Tags: MMORPG, Gaming

World of Warcraft patch 1.11 download link 1.
World of Warcraft patch 1.11 download link 2.
Unzip the files into the directory: C:\Program Files\World of Warcraft\wow-patch and run the game again. It should un-archive them and patch itself.
(Note that this is the 150mb file which takes you from 1.10 to 1.11, not the other full 450mb beast which is floating around)
Patch Notes here.Technorati tags: WoW, MMORPG

I'm playing a bit of Everquest 2 at the moment - it's NZ$20 for the DVD and 30 free days, or, it's a free download (in New Zealand it's actually easier to walk out and buy it than to mess about with the 3gb download and 'risk' exceeding my monthly data cap), so it's hard to justify why not to try it.
Anyhow, today I find this snippet from Aggro Me about the newbie zone:
They did retain the quest in the main series which encourages grouping. I know some soloers might not like this but you don't really have to...

Sadness in Star Wars world
Another article which says mostly the same stuff, but this one has a very apt quote:
One player wrote in an e-mail to me this week: "The game for me probably will be a lost love. Sort of like seeing your spouse with Alzheimer's. Outwardly, everything appears the same as it always has, but you know that beneath the surface, things will never be the same."
Technorati tags: Gaming, MMORPG, Star Wars

An addon which makes me want to play WoW again! The Chuck Norris Fact Generator!
Chuck Norris Fact Generator:
This small addon will post the random Chuck Norris facts found on ChuckNorrisFacts.com
Over 230 fun facts to use!
Usage:
Type /Chuck and then the channel that you wish to post in.
You may use 'guild', 'raid', 'party', 'say', 'yell', 'officer'.
Additionally, you can also whisper somebody a fact with /Chuck whisper
You may also use channel numbers, such as /Chuck 1 to post in /1, /Chuck 2 to post in /2,
and so on.
/Chuck guild
/Chuck raid
/Chuck say
/Chuck yell
/Chuck party
/Chuck officer
/Chuck whisper
/Chuck ...

Guild Wars: Factions first impressions.
Here are my random notes after playing about with Guild Wars: Factions over the weekend. I didn't end up playing for long, as I found out what I needed to know pretty quickly.
The ritualist is not at all what I was expecting. The Spirits sounded like pets, but they function more like "Wells", ie, Necromancers well of blood and the like. They don't move, and simply stay there and affect the entire party. Yes, this is just like the Ranger spirits you might say - but I hadn't seen a lot of those due to...

A few very quick screenies of Guild Wars: Factions up here on FlickR. A bit more writing to come in a day or two, when I get time to write up my notes (as brief as they are).
Technorati tags: Gaming, MMORPG, Guild Wars

Lucasarts continues to churn out Star Wars related games, and hey, if I was them I would too! Anyhow, Star Wars: Empire at War looks like it has definate potential.
Picture that moment in any RTS when you've amassed a large army, and use your uber micro to send it off into battle on 3 fronts - well, wouldn't that be even more fun if the army was a mixture of Stormtroopers, AT-STs, and even AT-ATs? Well, I think it would.
Looks like it's available in NZ from the 9th of Feb.
Technorati tags: Gaming, MMORPG, Star Wars

OGaming - Guild Wars: Factions info. The stuff on the Official Guild Wars homepage isn't too clear about what Factions exactly is. It sounds like a once off event, but it's also adding a lot of things into the game.
Players can visit this new area of the world to to try out a brand new arena, to visit the new combat training zones, or to experience the PvP explorable areas. Join us to get an early look at how PvP will evolve with the coming of Guild Wars: Factions!
I don't know 100% what they mean by this, but "PvP explorable...

Dungeons and Dragons Online: Confidentiality Obligations have been lifted:
Turbine is pleased to announce that the confidentiality obligations in the Preview and Non-disclosure Agreement for the DUNGEONS & DRAGONS ONLINE™: Stormreach™ Beta have been lifted earlier than anticipated. This means players in the Beta Program and those who took part in the Stress Test Events are free to talk about the game on public forums. After getting so much positive feedback from our Beta players, we felt it was time to let them share their opinions and praise for DDO with the rest of the MMOG community.
So what? Well, it...

Guild Wars has been named Best MMORPG of the Year and is one of the Top 10 PC Games of the Year, according to Gamespy. Guild Wars also received an award for Best Value. Find the full awards listing here.
Best MMORPG is a big call - I'd agree with Best Value, and that it should probably have some place in the Top 10 games listing, but Guild Wars isn't really a MMORPG as such - it's a multiplayer game with a shared graphical foyer/chat room (well, assuming you classify standing around shouting "FUK U KUNT" and so on as...